Medical, dental, pharmaceutical, veterinary or mortuary instruments and devices that are exposed to blood or other body fluids require thorough cleaning and microbial deactivation between each use. Washer decontamination systems are now widely used to clean and deactivate instruments and devices that cannot withstand the high temperatures of a steam sterilization system. Washer decontamination systems typically operate by exposing the medical devices and/or instruments to a washing solution and/or heated water for thermal disinfection.
In such systems, the instruments or devices to be cleaned are typically placed within a rack that is dimensioned to be received into a chamber within the washer decontamination system. During a deactivation cycle, a circulation system circulates a liquid disinfectant to nozzles located in the chamber. The nozzles spray the liquid disinfectant onto the items disposed in the chamber thereby microbially deactivating them. Following the deactivation cycle, a rinse solution, typically water, is circulated to the nozzles. The nozzles spray the rinse solution on the items in the chamber to remove traces of the liquid disinfectant and any particulate that may have accumulated on the instruments or devices during the deactivation cycle.
In some systems, rotatable spray arms having nozzles formed therein, are disposed in the chamber to provide better coverage. In some applications, it is desirable to be able to adjust the direction of a spray nozzle or to be able to vary the speed of rotation of a rotatable spray arm.
The present invention provides an improved nozzle assembly wherein the direction of coverage of a nozzle can be adjusted and the speed of a rotational spray arm can be varied.